Alumni leading climate change research and policy across Malawi
Current and past students and staff are collaborating to help Malawi develop climate policies and practices that help it to address the threats of increasing droughts and more severe floods, such as those that displaced over 174,000 people.
On Friday 12th June Professor Andy Dougill hosted 20 alumni at an event in Lilongwe for an inaugural reunion and to form of an International Association for Malawi.
The group included 7 individuals with connections to the School of Earth and Environment, including two alumni from the MSc Sustainability – Climate Change Programme: Sothini Nyirenda and Sarah McIvor, who work for the UNDP in Lilongwe and have joint responsibility for supporting national climate change programmes and policy support. Among the other attendees was Dr David Mkwambisi (PhD 2008), Programmes Coordinator of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and National Resources as well as four staff and students working on current research projects assessing climate resilience programmes (see http://www.cccep.ac.uk/Home.aspx ) and conservation agriculture initiatives (see http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/sri/consagric/ ). David has led collaborative research on urban agriculture around Lilongwe and Blantyre, and is part of studies assessing the nature of rainfall changes across the country.
The event provided an opportunity for everyone to reminisce about life at the University, Leeds and the UK more widely.
In terms of next steps for the Malawi Leeds Alumni Association, Edgar Lungu has been elected as acting chairperson and will be setting this up formally via the University shortly, see the University International Alumni pages.
